Wednesday, November 08, 2006

If The Day After Election Day Was A Holiday, We Feel Like The Traditional Drink Should Be Champagne.

We've been checking the web all day to monitor what's been happening in election, but our favorite moment so far was when we showed up at our tutor's house for Spanish class. Turns out Montana had elected a Democrat to the senate while we were in the subway, and our tutor greeted us at the door saying "The Democrats are going to win the Senate! The Democrats are going to win the Senate!" He was born and raised in Madrid. It's days like these, when Spanish people you see say "Congratulations" on the street that you remember people do believe in America, just not President Bush.

While we were encouraged by the Democratic success today, we were sad to see gay marriage struck down in so many states. But an encouraging thing, we thought, was that Arizona was the first state to refuse to enact a ban. Arizona Together, a very dedicated and well-funded pro-equal rights group, is to thank for that. They directed a great campaign focused on putting a face on the issue. Their ads all begin with sentences like "Meet Bob. If you vote for this amendment, this is what he will lose." They even encouraged gay people to have explanation parties, where they would invite friends and neighbors to ask questions about being gay. They reasoned if every gay person could convince two more people to vote against the ban, the ban would fail. And it did.

We're running out of time at this internet cafe in rainy Madrid, but for everyone who went out to vote yesterday, thanks. We're not the only ones over here who noticed.

3 comments:

A great day guys- a great day for drinking. Disappointing that the bans passed in so many places, especially Wisconsin, which is fairly liberal, but huge victory in Arizona- AZ, with all the retirees, problems with border crossings, John McCain, etc, is a relatively conservative state. Pulling out a win there is worth a loss in a couple of other states- if nothing else, highly symbolic because of the retirees that grew up in a generation with limited information about gay life that obviously voted against the ban, and also symbolic because it's McCain's backyard. Wake up John, the country has changed, and you're caught in 1975.